Hippocratic Oath
by SweeneyGirl310593
Summary: Cadet Joanna McCoy is passionate about her job and intends to follow her oath with all she has. But what happens when determination is not enough? Who heals the healer? Someone who understands exactly what she's going through. Rated for injury and language. Please let me know what you think. It means a lot...
1. Hurting

Chapter 1 - Hurting

_A/N: I'm back! And again with the 'ing' verbs for chapter titles! Roll with it! I've always been intrigued by the idea of the character of Joanna McCoy, daughter of Bones and herself an M. training so I decided to give her her own shortish story (probably a threeshot) examining what it means to be a doctor. She's about 19 here. With a dollop of h/c, a generous helping of angst and a sprinkling of peril, on with the story…_

* * *

"Come ON, Sir! Stay with me! Keep your eyes open for me, yeah?" The young medic shouted at her patient, urgency hiding the tremor in her voice well.

The man sprawled on the rubble-strewn ground before her was in a very bad way. His yells of pain had faded to weak, half conscious whimpers, the erratic rise and fall of his chest resembling the earthquake that had struck less than an hour ago. It had lasted barely six minutes but in that time had brought an entire city to its knees. The ruins of buildings and bodies; alive, dead and some in a nightmare state somewhere in between surrounding her. Pain, fear and chaos were the order of the day. Of course Joanna McCoy had been training and learning for such conditions for years but no textbook or Academy simulation could prepare someone for the sheer level of upset that currently surrounded her and her fellow Medical Track cadets. What was worse, backup was not going to be forthcoming right now due to the malfunctioning transporter. It was capable of beaming _out _but return trips were impossible until the Chief Engineer could fix the problem. And even miracle workers could only work so fast. Joanna brushed back her dark fringe, sodden with perspiration. 'Some damn shore leave, huh?' she thought, glad once again that the ship she had been assigned to was the legendary flagship, though this time for more practical reasons.

After an intense crash course in 'Actual Real Life on Board a Federation Starship', the medical cadets on Starfleet Academy's Advance Training Program had been looking forward to a relaxing shore leave on Merga Epsilon, a newcomer to the United Federation of Planets. The rich green planet had made up for being the only one in the system able to support life by being especially full of it. The rough-skinned, tall people always appeared to be cheerfully busy and welcomed the cadets, crewpeople and officers alike with zeal and loud voices. Even the children seemed to permanently boom at each other. It was quite bemusing until one got used to it. Not that they'd had time. Barely five hours into their well-deserved break, most of the once vibrant city's strange triangular buildings had been blasted to the ground by writhing seismic activity. Every member of Starfleet in the city had rushed to the Merganian's aid with a speed that would give most people whiplash. The instructors at the Academy would surely have been very proud of their students.

For her own part, Joanna had immediately leaped from shopping student to 'Doctor Mode'. Her head exploded with paramedic knowledge and her lectures on emergency triage. After taking an inventory of her own, relatively superficial injuries (okay maybe bruised ribs weren't all _that _superficial but she could work with that), she had grabbed medical supplies and ran. She had freed and stabilized her fellow cadet Carter who had had his leg and several ribs crushed by a gargoyle-like structure of all things before chucking a local doctor extra painkillers. Running between the burning, leaking remains of the commercial area, Joanna sought out more people in need of assistance. This is what she, and her dad before her, had been born to do. Save lives and soothe hurts. She had just finished bandaging the arm of a sobbing young girl when she heard the scream.

Which brought her back to her current patient, a male officer in his early forties from engineering judging by his uniform that was rapidly being dyed darker red. Strange how quickly a physician took ownership of responsibility for people, the paradox of tying oneself to another person while remaining objective. Still, that was implicit in the oath they all took. An oath she was trying to fulfil.

The medical tricorder had no good news for her. His blood pressure was very low at 80/40 and his heart rate fluctuated wildly to compensate. She looked at the horrifyingly large scarlet stain spreading across the dusty ground around her and calculated he had lost approximately 3 litres of blood. Ribs protruded from the man's broad chest and he had distention of the abdomen not to mention the lacerations caused by rubble fragments across most of his body. Diagnosis; dangerous blood loss, hypotension, broken bones, possible internal bleeding causing compression of the liver. Needless to say, things looked grim. He needed critical care on the sickbay up on the Enterprise.

In the absence of plasma synthesisers, dermal regenerators and advanced life support machines available on any starship worth her dilithium, she concentrated on staunching the bleeding and delivering pain relief while trying to communicate with the ship, taking some level of juvenile comfort from the fact her father and honorary Uncle Jim were up there. Still, she hadn't yet got a response from them and her concern was beginning to blossom into outright alarm.

Then the officer abruptly flatlined. "Shit! Dammit don't do this!" she hissed, starting compressions and forcing more precious blood from his wounds, covering her arms and science blues. More ribs cracked as she performed CPR, all the time muttering a mantra of "nononononono" interspersed with colourful swearing. Unresponsive. Two minutes passed, then four and the man's heart failed to flicker back to life. Joanna was sobbing now with desperate effort, the pain in her own side growing as she begun to realise she was fighting a loosing battle. Her head felt light and the monotone drone of the heart monitor on her tricorder wasn't helping the pounding ache behind her eyes. She shook her head to clear the fuzziness clouding her vision, not even registering someone yelling her name "JO!".

That was when the world around her suffered a second seizure and the already unstable masonry above collapsed on top of her trembling, slender form.

* * *

_A/N P.S. So…what do you think? Cu next chapter? _


	2. Feeling

**Chapter 2 - Feeling **

_A/N: thanks for the reviews guys! I love getting them! Here's chapter 2 for you…_

* * *

When Joanna came to herself the ache in her whole body almost dragged her back under again. With a determined groan, she opened her sky blue eyes and forced herself into a seated position on the biobed of sickbay. Clearly Scotty had once again exceeded his repair estimate. A flare of pain in her side and across her left arm made her cry out against her will and wiped the thought from her mind. "Woah, woah, Joey girl!" the dear voice of her father soothed "Take it easy!"

"Dad? I need to…"

He cut her off. "You _need _an analgesic! We can talk later okay? Go back to sleep until I finish with the dermal regenerator."

She was about to protest before another white hot flare surged through her nervous system and she screamed again before feeling the pressure of a hypo on her neck and she melted once again into blissful oblivion, her father tenderly rubbing her good arm with an uncharacteristically gentle "shhh".

* * *

Her father sat on the edge of the bed for a while looking between Jo's face and her vital signs which had improved considerably but were still weaker than he would like. When they had beamed her on board after digging her out of the rubble on the planet a few hours ago she had barely breathed and needed surgery for internal bleeding and broken bones immediately. Jim had carried her down the corridor to sickbay in lieu of a free stretcher, already bustling with patients from the emergency on Merga while Leonard had rushed to theatre, barking instructions to Nurse Chapel to prepare for surgery. She was ready for their new patient in a heartbeat and only gave a small gasp of dismay when she saw who it was.

It was one of the hardest things he had ever had to do. Operating on his daughter had been a horrific experience but as much as it hurt he had had to remove himself from that as Christine did, to think of her as another patient. During the procedure he was efficient and professional but afterwards he had spent a while holding her hand, tears of relief in his eyes. He felt physically unwell when he remembered the sight of the building falling on his daughter and her charge, a sight that wouldn't leave his retinas any time soon. He was glad that he had volunteered to beam down and thanked his stars that Scotty had put the medical landing party at that exact position. If they had been even ten minutes later…

He was jolted from his thoughts by the swish of the door opening to admit Spock, presumably sent to check on sickbay "Doctor, I trust the situation is under control? We have not yet received your report."

"Yeah Spock, I'll write the report in a damn minute!"

The Vulcan crossed to look at Joanna's monitor.

"I trust that Cadet McCoy's condition is improving?" he asked.

"Call her Joanna for Christsake! Yes, she just needs rest. Lemme see to her, will ya?" he rounded on his friend.

"You have other patients in need of care, Doctor." Spock reminded him gently.

"Alright, ya green-bloodied hobgoblin! She's only my only child! I almost lost her today. Not that you'd understand..." Leonard winced. That hadn't been necessary. Still, if Spock was ruffled, he didn't show it.

"I am sure that your staff will take adequate care of Joanna until she wakes."

"That's not what concerns me. I wanna be there when she does." Leonard was as worried about her mental wellbeing as her physical condition. The circumstances of her injury had been traumatic, after all.

"Your concern is understandable. However, if she is as stubborn and resilient as you have constantly shown yourself to be, I predict her full recovery."

"Okay, was that a sort of compliment? Stop it, you're making me nervous. Okay, Spock, I'm checking on the others now. Happy?"

"I am Vulcan Doctor and so I am merely contented."

"Same damn difference." Leonard grumbled.

* * *

"How you doing, kiddo?" Joanna looked up from the PADD she had been staring at and not really reading to see her father in the doorway.

"Okay. How's things down on Merga?"

"Still a bit of a shambles but slowly coming together" her father paused, examining her downcast expression. As he turned to fetch a few spare hypos she blurted "I didn't save him did I?", her voice small as she kept her eyes on the sheets.

"No, Joey darlin'. He was already dead when we found you." Leonard looked up to see tears in his daughter's eyes, reflecting bars of light from the PADD screen.

"It's my fault, isn't it? If I'd been faster... If I'd have thought clearer… Maybe I'm not cut out for this..." The first tears fell onto the sheets.

McCoy crossed the room and took Joanna's arms in a firm grip. "Stop right there, Jo! You can't _ever_ think like that, okay? You did all you could". She collapsed into his embrace, her head falling against his shoulder, still not fully recovered from her injuries.

"You don't know, you weren't there!" she shouted "If you had been _he_ would be too…" she added more softly as the pain in her side made itself felt briefly.

"I know _you_, okay? You've never done anything by halves. You were always a hard worker even as a kid. You collapsed giving him CPR for godssake! Okay, I've got more experience but, sweetheart, there was nothing more you could have given. Nothing more I could have given either. He was just too far gone."

"I'm sorry…I just…It was horrible! He was crying and dying and I couldn't bloody DO anything! I've never felt so damn weak in my life! I didn't even know his name!"

"He was your first, wasn't he? The first one you lost?" he realised.

She nodded, once again clinging on to him. "Oh, Joey!". Leonard held her as she cried. They were not commanding officer and cadet or doctor and patient. They were simply father and daughter in this moment. She was a young physician that had just gone through the terrible experience of losing a patient for the first time. He had lost enough to remain detached by now. Of course he felt _something_. He was human after all. But rarely did a death cause such grief and gut-wrenching, not to mention misplaced, guilt as his daughter was experiencing. He wouldn't be able to function if it did. After all, who heals the healer?

He remembered the first one he'd lost, a child taken by a sickness before his time. He had responded with tears too. That and a few drinks. What got him through then and continued to do so now was the other side of the coin. The rewards rather than costs of the job that he considered a way of life. The people he saved, the problems he solved and the lives he helped improve. That's what Joanna would need to heal her too. For now, he was content to be her shoulder to cry on. She needed that release first. He understood.

After a while she released him and looked him in the eye. "Tell me honestly Dad. Can I do this? Am I enough?"

"Well enough! Look, do you know how many people you helped down there? At least 11, including Carter. He told me you pulled him from a load of bricks and saved his life. All while you were injured yourself. If that isn't a damn good doctor in the making I'll tear up my licence now! I'm so damn proud of you, kiddo so don't you _dare_ think you're not good enough! I was so damn scared when we found you. Jim too. You should have seen his face. You were in a pretty bad state."

She gave a tearful laugh "I'm okay, Dad, thanks to you! Tell Uncle Jim to stop worrying too. Alright if you trust me I guess I can trust myself. I just wish… but that never solves anything, right?"

"Right. Look, the guy was called Jackson and he never believed in looking back either. When your granddaddy died, I spent so long blaming myself. If I had just held on another few months for the cure. If I had disregarded his wishes and kept him alive even though he virtually had no life by then. But I didn't have the luxury of hindsight. I made the call. Whether right or wrong, we'll never know but I did it for the right reasons. Your grandma understood. She was married to a doctor and raised one."

Joanna nodded contemplatively, her headache returning. "Can I do anything? I want to see Carter. What time is it? "

"It's 22.00! You can get some more rest! That's what he's doing. Just concentrate on getting yourself better for now! My God, she's asking to get back to duty!"

"Can't imagine where I get that from! Get some rest yourself!"

"Less sass, kiddo, okay? I'll see you in the morning. Sleep tight, Jo!"

"Goodnight, Dad, love you" she said, the hypo her father gave her aiding her slide into sleep.

* * *

_A/N P.S. H/C. One of my favourite things! Keep letting me know what you think! Think this will be a threeshot but depends how long the next one gets. Not sure when next update will be but see how it goes..._


	3. Healing

**Chapter 3 – Healing**

_A/N: sorry! Bit overdue and last part of this ficlet. Just wanted to explore the mindset doctors must have and how it might feel to loose a patient. I have the utmost respect for real life doctors like the McCoys. May spawn sequels, I don't know. I'm pretty tied up until late May finishing this degree of mine. It's crazy I'm in 3rd year right now! Like to think people will still like and watch Star Wars in the : I wanted to be a Jedi was a kid too. Pretty sure I'd make a pretty terrible one but would be awesome. As would being an Enterprise officer. I want Starfleet to be a real thing, dammit! Hope you've enjoyed this and thanks for the reviews. I genuinely love it when I get one and people like my work :)_

"LEONAAARD!" a raucous voice broke the calm atmosphere of sickbay most alarmingly "Where _is_ that good for nothing ex of mine?"

"Ma'am?" asked a young nurse by the name of Sarah Hill sheepishly. So this was the infamous Jocelyn McCoy in all her terrifying glory? That meant that they had reached Starbase 14 already. Once she had got wind of her daughter's accident, presumably by bending the ear of whatever member of the Brass responsible for Joanna's cadet class until he or she broke, Jocelyn had demanded to see her immediately. Since Starbase 14 orbited a world with some of the finest beaches in the cosmos and that it was only a few parsecs from where Jocelyn happened to be holidaying, not to mention the crew's by now desperate need for shore leave, the Captain had wearily agreed to her request (read: demand). Hill did sympathise, after all any parent would be out of their mind with worry after hearing that gravity had seen fit to dump a building on their child and all emotions seemed heightened in this particular parent.

"Ah finally somebody notices me!" Nurse Hill felt that one could hardly fail to but kept that to herself "where exactly _is_ Leonard?"

"Leonard?"

"Yes! As in the CMO! Trust my luck to get one of Kirk's airheaded yeoman!"

Hill felt it would be rather pointless to correct this woman on her assessment of the her profession, which she could surely see by the uniform colour, and intelligence (in which none of the crew were deficient) so calmly told her he was seeing to an injury and that she would inform him of Jocelyn's visit, privately thinking that if Doctor McCoy was hiding, she would think no less of him.

"Dammit Jocelyn! This is a sickbay not some bloody circus! Now what is all the ruckus about?"

"Well now, if it isn't the man himself and his permanent shadow Captain James Tiberius Jerk!" it was well known that Jocelyn did not approve of her ex-husband's choice of best friend, viewing him as an arrogant womaniser with far too much swagger for his own good. She certainly did not like her daughter referring to him as 'Uncle'. He was the sort of man who could persuade people to share in all sorts of deranged ideas.

"Lovely to see you too, Jocelyn. I must say you sound very well! Still as vocal as ever. How long have you been sitting on that joke by the way?"

The woman treated Kirk to her best withering glare before rounding on Leonard. "Where is our daughter? Give me a straight answer for once in our lives!"

"Dozing along with all my other patients. Or at least they were until you decided to holler the place down! She's in Ward 2."

"Thankyou!" she huffed irritably before stalking off down the corridor to Joanna's ward.

"Well, I can tell you now Jim boy it's gonna be a hell of a three days with _her_ around!" the good Doctor grumbled. His ex-wife wasn't exactly the easiest person to be around, being prone to nagging and bouts of impoliteness under stress.

"Bones, I heartedly agree with you! Whatever possessed you to marry…."

"Seemed like a good idea at the time" said Leonard flippantly "Believe me she wasn't always this overbearing. She can be charming on a good day. I should have listened to the people who say women turn into their mother!" then for the sake of Nurse Hill who looked faintly peeved at that comment (she hadn't spoken to her own mother in years) he added rather meekly "Some women. Olivia never liked me. Feeling was kinda mutual after a while."

"Thank God there's no chance of Jo following suit" Kirk said emphatically "Glad she's on the mend. Seems like she'll be up and at 'em in a couple of days!"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves! It only happened a week ago! I don't want her anywhere _near_ a workstation or anything strenuous of any description for at least another fortnight. She's still pretty shaken up not to mention the healing bones and the fact the marrow's working overtime to replace the blood! Father's wishes and Doctor's orders!"

"Oh, double whammy! Got it Bones, I won't take her skydiving on shore leave then."

"What? Certainly not!"

"Hey, it was her idea!" Kirk cried defensively.

"Damn infant of a…!"

McCoy was interrupted by a shout ringing through sickbay once more, this time from a certain younger McCoy "Dammit Mom! I'm not made of glass!"

"She's your daughter, alright!" chucked the Captain, slapping his friend's shoulder in mirth.

"Don't I know it!"

* * *

"Yes, Mom, I'll call you tomorrow okay? Just stop worrying, it's stressing _me_ out!"

"And me!" interjected Leonard.

"Don't _you_ start! And it's a parent's prerogative dear. Now are you sure…"

Joanna sighed. Jocelyn had tried to dissuade her from her career choice at every turn since she had grown old enough for it to be a serious decision. She had spent her childhood playing doctors and said she wanted to be one like her daddy someday but then she had also wanted to be a fairy, a giraffe and a Jedi Knight when she grew up too. It was only once she entered senior school and started asking the science teachers for advice on the subject that Jocelyn began to realise it wasn't a passing phase. Once Joanna had proved her mother wrong about her mental capacity for it Jocelyn had conceded that she would make a fantastic doctor but kept trying to persuade her to stay on Earth. But Jo had set her sights on life in space. The chance to broaden the horizons of both herself and others not only medically (and who knew how many cures and therapies were hidden on far off worlds?) but in cultural knowledge as well. Unlike her father, she was very interested in languages and had relished the chance to learn under and become friends with one of the foremost linguistics experts serving on a Federation starship, Nyota Uhura. It was a very amusing shock to Leonard when Joanna had met Spock for the first time and had started a conversation with him in fluent Vulcan. Jo had told her father she felt a good grasp of language was an important skill for doctors, especially those in Starfleet as it helped patients and physicians communicate important information about their condition. There was also something instantly soothing about being understood and understanding in turn.

It may also have been true that her mother was jealous of her father for having so much more in common with their daughter. Especially as he had spent most of her teenage years in space himself. Not that he'd had many options after the divorce. Still, time had cooled the feud to a strange sort of irritable confrontation combined with gruff compassion. In the end they had wanted different things from life and had grown apart, spending less time together so it hadn't really come as much of a surprise when Jocelyn found someone else. Things had got pretty messy for a while even so and Jo had been caught between them. Leonard joining Starfleet seemed like a terrible idea at the time especially given his aviophobia but it gave all of them time to reflect. It had also provided Joanna with a friend for life in her Uncle Jim when the two men had struck up a close friendship at the Academy, mainly due to Jim's accident-prone nature. Leonard and Jocelyn had hurt each other but they were now content to leave it all in its proper tense.

Still, it had been very begrudgingly indeed that Jocelyn had allowed _her_ to enter the Academy. Still, Joanna knew this came not from a position of judgement or mean spiritedness but of love and fear of losing her both physically and emotionally and the bone of contention had long got past the full blown argument stage.

"Mom, we've been through this how many times?! This is my passion, my dream. Saving lives is all I've ever wanted to do, you know that! I mean, you wouldn't throw in the towel with your business just cause the rent went up would you? A bit of adversity isn't gonna make me leave Starfleet! Me getting hurt was always a possibility."

"I can't deny you are brilliant Jojo and how proud I am of you saving those people but I can't help it. You're just so young. We make quite a pair. You'll keep throwing yourself into danger and I'll keep worrying about it!"

"That's not generally the idea, Mom! Anyway most of my cadet class are my age. I'll be fine, trust me! Besides, I'll still be at the Academy for a few more years."

Jocelyn looked tenderly at her daughter, shaking her head before leaning down to peck her on the cheek. "Right, you two, my shuttle leaves in 20 minutes! Look after each other out here for pity's sake! And I am NOT to hear of another incident like this any time soon!" she commanded.

"Yes, Boss!" Leonard mumbled.

"I can _hear_, you know!" was Jocelyn's haughty parting comment. Joanna rolled her eyes.

"Right, obvs time!" Leonard declared to Jo.

"Seriously? How many times do I need my blood pressure taken a day?" she moaned "I can't _wait_ to be out!"

"You know that as well as I do!"

"Forgive me for not being on the ball, I'm fragile at the moment apparently!"

"Hummph" murmured the older McCoy "Fragile my ass!"

* * *

As it happened, Jo was up and about a few days after her mother's visit and allowed on shore leave. Her father had forbidden her from doing anything more extreme than sunbathing and even then warned her to remember SPF cream. Joanna was just fine with this, glad of the peaceful change of scenery as she sat on the sand reading a book on her PADD, listening to the soft roar of waves washing in a foamy cascade on the shoreline. She spent a great deal of time with Steven Carter too, walking in the shallows or around the market on the starbase. He made it clear he saw her as something of a hero and spent the first conversation thanking her profusely. In turn he provided a listening ear for her to talk about Jackson's death and her plans. They were becoming firm friends.

A month or so later, the participants in the Advance Training Programme were to be recalled to Earth to resume their normal courses. Leonard had observed dryly that the last few months were probably worth more in training value that the two years or more that the cadets had at the Academy and he could really use some of them in his staff. Jim agreed with him. There was one cadet in particular he would be very sorry to see leave and not just because she was the daughter of Bones and a dear friend in her own right. Her bravery and skill were excellent. Besides her recklessness made her something of a kindred spirit for him.

A few days before they were due to leave, Jim and Joanna had just finished a session in the Enterprise's gym before heading to lunch in the mess hall. Her father would no doubt appear at some point. "Joanna, there's something I want to discuss with you" Jim began setting his chicken sandwich and coffee opposite her ham wrap and tea.

"Yeees?" asked Joanna, puzzled at his formal tone.

"How would you like to stay?"

"Here? Now? But the training…"

"Can be completed here. If I pull a few strings. The point is, you've got smarts and guts, a combination sorely lacking in the new people coming through lately. You'd be a real asset to my crew. You'd be an Ensign too."

"An Ensign? In a starship sickbay" Jo spluttered "at nineteen?"

"Of course I understand if you want to…"

"Are you bloody kidding? I'm in!" she beamed.

"What are you in? You'd better not be plotting, you two!"

"I'm in the crew Dad! Looks like we're gonna be seeing much more of each other! I'm looking forward to the next few years!"

"Dammit Jim! What about her education?"

"Why, Bones, she'll be learning under the finest doctor in Starfleet!"

"Flattery, as they say, will get you nowhere, Jim!"

"How did you know I wasn't talking about M'Benga?" Jim teased. Joanna snorted into her tea at the sight of Leonard's face, spilling a good deal of it and prompting laughter from her father and friend and now commanding officers. Later that same day she would be on the crew roster, earning admiration and congratulations from her classmates, none more so than Carter who hugged her enthusiastically on the transporter pad as he left. There was not a sour grape in sight. For her own part, Joanna was thrilled to finally find herself practicing medicine among the stars…

\\/, fin. ,\\/

_A/N P.S. Hope you all enjoyed Joanna's introduction to the NCC 1701 crew! I really like the idea of an Advance Training Programme and the crew becoming a literal family affair. Sort of like what Wesley Crusher was doing on the Enterprise D. Anyway hope to be starting a new story fairly soon and see you all there. Please let me know what you think/any ideas. Thanks for reading. Sweeney out :)_


End file.
